Governor’s Top Officials
Respond to ABC’s Fictional “Bird Flu” Movie
JEFFERSON CITY, May 10, 2006-Director of Missouri Department
of Public Safety Mark James along with Director Julie Eckstein of
the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services responded today
to ABC’s fictional “Bird Flu” Movie assuring Missourians
the H5N1 virus has not yet appeared in the U.S.
“Hollywood productions can be very entertaining
but we must remember they are also fiction,” Eckstein said.
“While the movie highlighted some important issues we must remember
the simple facts--there is no influenza pandemic in the world at this
time and H5N1 avian influenza is almost exclusively a disease of birds.”
Last night, the ABC television network aired a movie
titled "Fatal Contact: Bird Flu in America." The movie follows
an outbreak of the H5N1 avian flu virus from its origins in a Hong
Kong market through its mutation into a pandemic virus that becomes
easily transmittable from human to human and spreads rapidly around
the world.
According to state officials, the film does highlight
an important aspect of individual and community planning and cooperation
that will be so vital to sustaining communities and neighborhoods
during an extended wave of an influenza pandemic. Director James said
Gov. Matt Blunt’s Homeland Security Advisory Council is supporting
specific pandemic planning efforts to supplement the state’s
all-hazards emergency response plan, which is up-dated continually.
In February, Gov. Blunt was joined by U.S. Department
of Health and Human Services Deputy Secretary Alex Azar at Missouri
pandemic planning summit where public health officials, business and
community leaders, gathered to address pandemic flu preparedness.
More information on pandemic flu readiness is available
at www.pandemicflu.gov.